Bright Horizons

Ashlyn & Alex are going to start school on next Monday.  The facility invited us to meet with the teachers and the staff today, we decided to take Ashlyn & Alex along with us.

The meeting was set for this afternoon, 3-ish.  30mins to meet with Alex's teacher, and 30mins to meet with Ashlyn's.  The purpose of the meeting was to go over some forms, things that we want the teachers to know about, and to answer any questions we had in mind.

At the beginning, both kids were quiet, demanded to sit on our laps.  10mins later, Alex wanted to sit alone and started to drink water.  Before you know it, he started to talk, alot, non-stop.  Ashlyn still observing the place and people.  Soon after Alex was sitting alone, Ashlyn asked to have her own chair to sit in, and demanded for pen and paper to scribble.

They invited us to check out Ashlyn's classroom.  What a great idea.  Not only we got to meet the teachers, watch they kids interact, the most important was that I got to see how Ashlyn react to the new place and people.  I'm not too worry about Alex getting involve with other people, Ashlyn concerns me the most.

To my surprise, when she saw something interested her, she let go of my hand and explored.  As we were leaving, she demanded to play at the playground and didn't want to go.  It seemed like a good start for her and Alex.  I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed, and hoping it's not gonna be too difficult on Monday.

: )

Facebook Search Updates

Oh, it’s not her. The person I contacted thought she might be the potential long lost friend I was trying to locate, replied. It’s not her. So, my search continues.

~

Facebook

I have received a few invitations from friends to join Facebook awhile ago, but I didn't feel that I have a need to. For whatever reason, I finally signed up just an hour ago, and surfed a bit.  I was amazed how great this network is.  Hack, I have a website, started blogging, signed up bloglines, why not Facebook?

First of all, it pulls the contacts from your email, and if your contacts already are Facebook members and upload pictures in the profiles, you will be able to see it.  I was in shock to see some of the profile pictures of my friends/email contacts.  For those I haven't seen them for years, most of them haven't changed a bit, a few of them..., let's just say I had to look very closely, and starred for minutes, and view pictures in their photo albums, to come to the conclusion "that's the person!", not just random pictures of strangers they used.

I just had a few great conversation with a friend and his dad in HKG, whom are very close friend of my family.  And there's a possibility that I might have found a friend from HKG whom we attended the same school and I lost touch with years ago.  Couldn't really tell cux the profile picture was too small.  I just sent her a message and waiting for her reply.

Ashlyn's Latest Favorite Song

Drawings

Nowadays, whenever Ashlyn & Alex sit down, they ask for pens and paper. Here are their recent masterpieces.

Ashlyn's Self Portrait

Ashlyn wrote the E, L, and A, but she didn't write ALEX

Use your imagination, not sure what she was trying to draw

Alex's first drawing

These are happy faces, according to him.

~ * ~

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋快樂

The Kids

We had dinner at the in-laws' on Saturday. Brother & sister in-law came with their daughters too.

We finally able to take a decent picture of all of the 4 kids. Although not looking at the camera/directions the same time, but at least they were willing to sit down quietly, calmly for the picture.

From left: Allyna (2.5 years old), Jolie (8 months old), Ashlyn (3 years and 3 months old) & Alex (2 years and 2 months old).

Bargain Shopper

I took Ashlyn, along with my aunt to Costco on Sunday. As we walked in, we saw these cute little cardigan, perfect for Ashlyn to wear at home. We let her hold on to it as we shop. We got home, Ashlyn got off the car, and she said:

"係唔係減價呀? 好平呀?"
"Is it on sale? Very good price?"

One bargain shopper in the making!!

~

What Do You See??

My brother, Jeff, and sister in law, Penny, are expecting their first child in Spring 2008. Penny just had the amniocentesis (抽羊水) done 2 days ago and the results was GOOD!

This morning, Jeff and I IM'ed a little. Obviously, my first question was "you got the result back?" Here is our conversation:

Miss CHU 朱小姐: got the results?

Penny 叉燒: yes.... everything is OK.

Miss CHU 朱小姐: boy or girl?

** one minute later, no response **

Miss CHU 朱小姐: BOY OR GIRL AH?????

** 5 seconds later, request to accept/transfer file **

Miss CHU 朱小姐: image too small la

Miss CHU 朱小姐: baby sneezing??

Penny 叉燒: hahahaha

Miss CHU 朱小姐: cannot tell wor

so, here is the image Jeff sent me.

Conversation continues:

Miss CHU 朱小姐: is this really your baby??

Penny 叉燒: look closer la...

Miss CHU 朱小姐: looks like the baby is driving, and slaming on the brake

Miss CHU 朱小姐: aiya, the image is very very very tiny

Penny 叉燒: shifting gears.....

Miss CHU 朱小姐: AAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Miss CHU 朱小姐: so, it's not image of your bb la

Penny 叉燒: no la

Miss CHU 朱小姐: but very cute

Get it? Any winners??

~

It's Official !

It's official, I think. It's been 3 weeks in a row that Ashlyn went diaperless, even nap time and sleep time at night. Zero accidents (touch on wood).

She calls out everytime she needs to use the bathroom. I think it's pretty safe to say it's official that Ashlyn IS now potty trained. So proud of her! ; )

There goes savings on diaper money! HA HA!

~

ARE YOU READY ??

Finally, we got good news from the Cisco Family Connection, where they offer daycare/pre-school/pre-K programs. They now have openings for both Ashlyn and Alex, and they can start as early as Oct. 22. Although it's only a 3-day week, it should be a good start for them. If we give up the spaces, we will be on the bottom of the waiting list. No, No, No, that's not gonna happen!!

Baba picked up all the necessary paperwork this morning, and we must turn in the applications and fee no later than tomorrow evening to make it official.

There are so many questions running in my mind since we received the email last night. Would they get used to it? Would they cry on the first day? How am I gonna video tape both of them on the first day of school? What time should we start? Is 9am too early? Can they start 9:30am?

Oh well, they are going to start going to school some time anyways, why not start now?

Now I can tell people "YES, my kids are going to school now!"

~

V. I. P.

COACH has the V.I.P./Preferred customers sale event going on right now (by invitation only), and I'm lucky that I have some V.I.P. friends. My dear friend, Elaine, she's so generous that she sent me her invitaion. 25% off all Fall merchandise.

I went and shopped for coworkers in Taiwan, and I was told the price in Taiwan is twice of USA's. So, I picked up couple of items for my coworkers, then I found this. Probably new this season, never seen it before, the COACH Beauty item. I knew they introduced the perfume earlier this year, now, they have lipstick (3 shades) and a shimmer powder compact.

I bought the lip stick color ROSE, a more neutral color, retail $18, and the shimmer powder compact for my cousin as her birthday gift, retail $38.

You see, there's even the COACH logo on the lipstick itself.

~

Halloween is Haunting !

Soon after Labor Day, stores already started to put Halloween items on shelves. Last year, I went every where to scout for the perfect Halloween costume for Alex. The requirements: keep the kid warm, easy on and off, under $20.

I stumbled upon Old Navy store and found this perfect costume for Alex. Not only it met all of the requirements and it was the C-U-T-E-S-T around town. O, did I mention it worked well with Ashlyn's too. Last year, Ashlyn was JoJo the Circus Clown, so, Alex was her best friend, Golith the Lion.

The belly and the butt of the lion costume was filled with synthetic cotton, and when Alex walked, the belly and the butt swinging left and right.

This year, Ashlyn is determined to be a Princess, so I can put all my energy to scout for Alex's costume. I had couple ideas in mind. Pirate, Turtle, Gold fish. I ended up getting the Pirate from Old Navy. It's been almost a week since I purchased the costume, I have been trying to lure Alex to try on the costume, but he refuses. I will keep trying. Here is the picture from Old Navy website.

Here are the other costume I had in mind. Turtle from The Children's Place, and the Gold Fish from Babystyle.

~~

What else is there?

As we were walking back to the hotel from Time Squre, we saw this from far away, and needless to say, we must stop by and check it out (it's already 11pm):

This is just one of the many clips they play on the screen. I guess if I had video taped every one of them, it would take a good 15-20 mins. Go see it for yourself.

We were suprised to see a Disney store on the 5th Ave. Just out of curiosity, we had to check it. WOW was the only i can come up with. It's a 3-story store. The ground level had all the princess stuffs, the Micky stuff and souvenir items. The first day, yes, the first day, we went back again and again. On the first day/time we were there, we must have spent a good hour to hour and half there just to check out everything. They have every character you have ever seen on the cartoon network, movies, and story books. You know how High School Musical is so hot now. When we were there, 4 of the staff came out with the High School cheerleading outfit and singing songs and dancing the moves from teh High School Muscial. There were kids around the age of 7 to 10 singing and dacning with them, and they knew all the moves and didn't miss a beat!!

*more to come*

Time Squre New York

We watched the crystal ball dropped at Time Square every New Year's Eve right above the big-O screen. Johnson and I finally were there in person. No, not New Year's Eve. We were there just about a month ago for a wedding. The screen didn't amaze me, cux it looked smaller than I thought it would be.

What amazed me was the 3-level Toys R Us at Time Square. I was not impressed by their toy selections and variety, what caught my attention and interests was this:

<

You can see this ferry wheels from the street. $6 per person.

What caught Johsnon's attention?? He insisted to take a picture with him.

Then we went upstair the next day, and saw this:

Next to the Jurassic Park corner was the Lego section:

**

Labor Day

Sept 3 was Labor day, it was a 3-day weekend that I have been waiting for. Thinking I could lay back and relax and just chill at home with the kids, but guess what we did. What we did was totally fit the holiday - LABOR.

Long Over Due Entry #1

O, this is loooonnnnggg over due. I know, I've been slacking a bit lately.

Should've posted this entry looonnnggg ago, our trip to UK & Paris. Well, in a short 1 week stay in London and Paris, we've been to majority of the "must see" tourist spots, and lots of walking and shopping.

Well, these are just A FEW of the pictures, but, you get the idea.

~

Alex did it again!

..

Hurray!! Yes, Alex did it again. This is the second time now.

This morning, as usual, Alex had his morning poo. This time a little different, he didn't poo in his diaper. He paused, squaded, and that's the signal we knew he needed to go poo poo. We kept asking his if he wanted to go, he refused, and denied. As soon as Baba came out from shower, he told Baba that he wanted go poo. Alex did it soon after Baba set up the toilet with the little potty seat.

We are so proud of you!!

~

Silly, Silly, Silly

.....

Wrinkle Free Shirts

..
Baba found some great deals on Amazon, Men's dress shirts under $10 and free shipping.

Baba: Mama, these dress shirts are under $10, and they have Kenneth Cole's too! I want to get some un-wrinkle dress shirts.
Mama: it's wrinkle free, not un-wrinkle!
Alex: wrinkle!
Mama: no, wrinkle free ah!
Alex: one-two-three ??!!
Mama: no, wrinkle free ah!
Alex: ONE-TWO-THREE AH!

~

When you have time to kill ...

My cousin Jacqueline is a school teacher, and now, just like the school kids, she is taking her sweet summer vacation. So, along with Ashlyn & Alex, all 3 of them just had a little too much time to kill yesterday, and guess what they did? see below picture.

.

.

It was done via http://www.simpsonizeme.com/ , pretty silly, hun?

~

ALEX is 2 !!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, ALEX!!

Alex turned 2 yesterday. Internet at home was down for the last couple of days. Should have posted this entry from work.

~

Potty Training - Take 2

Remember last summer, Ashlyn was potty trained. She went diaperless at home basically the entire summer & fall. As soon as the weather got a little colder, for some odd reason, she wanted to wear diapers again.

The training for poo poo was a success. It's been a year she hasn't poo'ed on diaper. She lets us know when she needs to go poo poo. YIPPIE!!

We have started pee pee training all over again. It seems to me she knows what to do. We just let her go diaperless at home now, but we still put diapers on her when we go out, especially taking a long road trips.

Saturday night, we were out dinner in San Francisco. Ashlyn demanded to take the diaper off cux she wasn't comfortable. She was diaperless and all the sudden, she said "mama, I need to go pee pee." Off we ran to the washroom and YES, she did it.

Don't want to say anymore, cux afraid I would jinx it. We'll see how it goes.

~

Alex's 1st Haircut

WWhhEEwww!!! It was done!! Alex got his first haircut ever! Last Friday, yes, Friday the 13th, took Alex to get his first haircut, he was fuzzy a bit, but overall, he was quite alright. See if for yourself.



Before


After



Yes, we are keeping his baby hair.

~

July 4 (with Video)

Carmen & Jorence invited us to their home for a July 4 BBQ get together yesterday. Ashlyn & Alex as usual, being cool as they were at a new place and seeing not so familiar faces. Things turned 180 degree as they discovered the odd looking chair -- The iGallop.







~

Boy vs. Girl's View

Baba: Alex, 叫舅父 比咩 野車車?

Alex: Cooper!

Ashlyn: 咩 野 豬 扒 呀 ?

? ? ! !

睇 咩 野 ??

Ashlyn 有 d 扭 計, 我 話 帶 佢 去 睇 珠 寶 首 飾 鑽 石 bling bling.

佢 喊 住 口 咁 講 : “好 呀. 鑽 石 咩 野 黎 架? woo woo woo~~”

p.s.: 非 常 好! 應 該 問 清 楚 D o既!

~

20-month-old vs. 36-month-old

唔 同 年 齡 對 事 物 o既 態 度 都 唔 同.

同 樣 一 句 說 話, 有 唔 同 o既 反 應.

姨 婆 同 爸 爸 同 樣 講 : "唔 聽 話 就 打 屎 忽!"

Ashlyn 同 Alex 有 咁 樣 o既 回 應.

Ashlyn: 屎 忽 有 屎 wor!

Alex: 細 力 D wor!

Speechless...!

~

Princess Ashlyn

Princess Ashlyn turned 3 last week, since she's in the Princess/Ballerina phase, her birthday celebration had much princesses.

A night at the Chuck-E-Cheese was a blast!

Thanks to all the Yee Por, Kau Kung, Yee Yee, & Kau Foo.

~

Video: Slam Dunk

Curious Alex

Alex is at the questioning stage since weeks ago. Everytime he gets into the car, as soon as he's straped in, he asks "where are we going?" "are we going home?" He asks "where are we going now?" almost every 2 minutes. I think we should expect "Are we there yet?" soon.

~

Video: Ashlyn's Helper

Video: Take them off

Where did you go?

We're back on Sunday night. Ashlyn came to the airport with my cousins to pick us up. For some reasons, she acted shy and embarrassed when we talked to her. By the time we got home, 11 something, Alex was already sound asleep.

Monday morning, as soon as Alex woke up, I asked him where did Mama go, and here is the conversation:

Mama: Alex, Mama 去左邊呀? Alex, where did Mama go?
Alex: 英國 England (in a very confirmed, definite tone)
Mama: ??!!
Mama: Alex, Mama 去左邊呀? Alex, where did Mama go?
Alex: 你係唔係去左英國呀? Did you go to England?
Mama: ??!! 你點知呀? How did you know?

~

Someone Turns 3 Today !!

Happy Birthday Ashlyn !
XOXO

~

I'm Back !!

Just arrived at home from the airport. Will update with pix from London & Paris soon. For now, need to catch some ZZZzzzZZZzzzzzzzZzZZZ

Video - The Next American Idol

Little Panda Class

Took the kids to their first summer recreation class yesterday -- The Little Panda Class, a playgroup done in Chinese. There're about 15 kids all together.

At the beginning of the class, Ashlyn and Alex were not too interested, and they looked confused. I think it's because of the language. Everybody else knew the songs very well, and it's very obvious that we're the new comers. As the class progress, and teacher Jill took out more props, Ashlyn and Alex got involved a bit, especially when some wooden sticks (like drum sticks) and musical instruments were distributed to the kids.

We were given a CD and a lyric book, so last night, we were teaching Ashlyn & Alex to say words in Chinese. Not sure if they totally understood the meaning, or if they were just imitating the pronunciation, they sounded pretty good.

I was solo with the kids yesterday. I will try to take video and pictures next time.

~~

"A" for Ashlyn

Last night, Ashlyn picked up a crayon and started scribble on a piece of paper. I was curious, and wasn't sure what she was drawing, so I asked:

me: Ashlyn, what are you drawing?

Ashlyn: "A"

me: Show me (as I grabbed a clean piece of paper)

Ashlyn: Na!

WOW, I almost cried. My 35 month old girl just wrote the alphabet "A"!! I quickly put the 2 pieces of paper away, and scanned, and put them in a safe place. Oh, almost forgot, I also put the date on the back of the paper. He He!

Don't pay attention to the piggie head and "S", those were not written/drawn by Ashlyn.

~~

十二星座的第一名

Found this from a Yahoo Blogger. Interesting.

白羊座： 衝動第一名，做事後悔第一，火氣大第一，大膽第一，敢愛敢恨第一名。
金牛座： 穩重第一名，節檢第一名，貪財第一名，可靠第一名，吃苦耐勞第一名。
雙子座： 八卦第一名，聰慧第一名，Crazy第一名，幽默第一名，多話第一名。
巨蟹座： 體貼第一名，愛吃第一名，愛家第一名，孝順第一名，多愁善感第一名。
獅子座： 自信第一名，愛現第一名，要面子第一名，品味第一名，風度第一名。
處女座： 細心第一名，挑剃第一名，愛乾淨第一，小題大做第一，吃醋第一名。
天秤座： 愛美第一名，猶豫第一名，懶惰第一名，善辯第一名，公正第一名。
天蝎座： 痴情第一名，扮酷第一名，魅力第一名，冷冰冰第一名，理智第一名。
射手座： 貪玩第一名，糊塗第一名，可愛第一，勇于嘗試第一，心無城府第一名。
摩羯座： 嚴肅第一名，鎮定第一名，忍耐第一名，認真第一名，保守第一名。
水瓶座： 好奇第一名，好學第一名，創意第一名，另類第一名，創造力第一名。
雙魚座： 心軟第一名，敏感第一名，多疑第一，愛作夢第一，胡思亂想第一名。

Video - Doodle-li-do

Video - Street dance

Tag: How did the name come about? Alex Haylen

Here is the 2nd part of the TAG (the final part). This one will be shorter.

This time, we gonna start with his Chinese name, cux it will be very simple and short. One Sunday morning when I was still carrying Ashlyn (after we have decided on Ashlyn's Chinese name), when I woke up, a boy's Chinese name popped up in my head, out of no where--Hay Leun--曦麟. I immediately told Johnson about it and presented to the in laws. The question was which character we should use? For some reason, the one with most most strokes stuck in my mind. The meaning of this character is large male deer. Needless to say, everyone's reaction was "WOW, so many strokes, your son will hate you, more so than Ashlyn! Don't even think about sending him to Chinese school."

We didn't settle on the Chinese name yet. Remember, my rule for Chinese name and middle name? So I searched online, found Halen, and FYI, it is an unisex name. Good, sounded close enough, but I modified the spelling a little by adding "y" to make it HAYLEN, to ensure people won't pronouce the name as HELEN. Now, we settled on the Chinese name and middle name for our son.

With the first name selection, we had a difficult time. I thought, Ashlyn's initial is AHH, maybe the 2nd baby should have initial OHH and EHH, and it just happened 2 of my favorite names begin with O and E were Oscar and Ethan. Banned by Johnson, he didn't like either of them. Back to square 1. He liked Alex all along, he tried to convience me. I told him if we couldn't pick one that both of us agree on, we would use Alex. Silly me, he could've said no to any names until I give up and give in and agree on Alex. I couldn't come up with another name period, so I tried to convience myself by saying the full name over and over again to myself. Surprising, not bad. I liked it.

~~

Tag: How did the name come about? Ashlyn Haley

OK, Viv, this is for you. I think I have been delaying this long enough, and now it's time to answer your TAG.

Ashlyn. How did it come about? We started to brainstorm for names as soon as we found out it's a girl, thinking, must be easy, girls name, piece of cake. There are many pretty girl names alright, but Baba and I couldn't compromise. My all time favorite was Audrey, but it will not work for a Chinese family with elderly who don't really speak English. Pronunciation will turn into "All Jue", which is close to Cantonese pronunciation of peeing. No, N-O W-A-Y !

Friends had been asking "have a name yet?" through out my pregnancy. Baba and I finally narrowed down to 2, his favorite (Ashley) and my favorite (Jocelyn). It was like a light bulk just popped on top of my head when my friend Joan said "why don't you combine the 2?" Joceley? Acelyn? Joley? ASHLYN it is! Johnson wasn't sure about this idea when I first suggested to him. The more I say it, the better I felt about it, and I finally convinced Johnson to name our girl ASHLYN.

We will go to the middle name later. Now, let's talk about the Chinese name. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, we asked Father In Law (FIL) for name idea. I knew that his family uses a particular character in their name for each generation, and that was set by their ancestors. So, I asked FIL what's that character and ask him to name the first born grandchild in the family. Days, weeks, months passed, nothing. We saw them every week, but we casually brought up the subject every other week to remind him about the name idea. I asked my dad for idea, he told me it should leave it up to my FIL, so OK, continue waiting. We will come back to it later.

As for her middle name, Haley, one of my favorite too. Elaine and I were instant messaging each other, I was telling her I really like Haley as middle name, but also want the middle name to sound like the Chinese name. You know, how we used our Chinese name and turned it into English pronunciation and used it as our middle names. No, I don't want that. I wanted an American name as her middle name. So, back to the instant message. As I was saying, I like the name Haley, so Elaine said "Why don't you just use Haley and turn it into Chinese?" I thought about it, good idea. Discussed it with Johnson as soon as I got home from work. He basically OK'd the idea and of course we needed to run it by the in laws. Luckily, FIL OK'd our name selection, and the next step was to choose the characters.

Haley, the Chinese name we've choose pronounced Hay Yee, close enough, I think. I wanted to use the character with positive meaning. For the first character "Hay", there were 2 of them in mind. 1. Hope and 2. Sunlight. I prefer #2 cux not many people used that one, and why? probably because it's a character with many strokes. Then I paused, no, can't use that one cux Johnson probably don't know how to write that. So I suggested Hope 希 for the first character. For 2nd character "Yee", I had my mind set on the one means Happy, Cheerful 怡. At dinner table, we presented the Chinese name to the family, Sister in law said "don't use this Hay, cux it looks like a scissor on top cutting the fabrics below. Why don't you use the Sunlight Hay?" I told her the concern I had, but after all, everyone agreed we should use the sunlight Hay 曦.

So, there you have it, Ashlyn Haley 曦怡

曦 = sunlight
怡 = happy, cheerful, joyful, harmony

A side note, as soon as I announced the Chinese name to friends and families, the first reaction was "WOW, this Hay? Good thing she doesn't study in Asia. If she is, and need to write her name, or penalized by teachers to write her name many times, she will hate you for it"

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Tag: How did the name come about?

~Ta Ta ~

He's Here!

A dear friend of mine, Elaine, just gave birth to a healthy baby boy late last night.

Congratulations!!

Memorial Day Weekend

It was a long weekend, a 3-day weekend, but it seemed too short. Thought we could chill at home and relax, but no, activities lined up.

The highlights for the kids must be their 1st experience to the aquarium. We went to the Aquarium of the Bay at the Pier 39 in San Francisco. The weather was surpringly nice. Sunny and clear sky, just a little bit too much wind. Well, I guess it comes with the package since we're at the pier by the sea. My coworker strongly recommended the Monterey Aquarium, but due to other activities/committments, we decided to go to the one in SF instead. To me, I was a bit disappointed, but for the kids, they were thrilled.

When we entered the aquarium, before we went downstair to the "tunnels", there're several tanks of fish. Ashlyn and Alex were so excited, going from one tank to another. If I didn't urge them to proceed, we could probably spend another 30 minutes there.

As soon as we walked out the elevator, there's the first tunnel, where it similate the ocean closer to the shore. Every visitor was excited and everybody was just standing at the front end of the tunnel. Woo's and Ahh's. It took us a good 5 - 10 minutes to go through the first tunnel, not that there're much to watch, it's just stopping and waiting and trying to get the stroller to pass through.

The second tunnel similate the deeper ocean. There're sharks and rays. Needless to say, the rascals were estitic. Alex kept on tabbing the glasses, thinking he could touch the fish. Ashlyn just running up and down the tunnel and amazed by the fish all over and around her.

We finished the 2nd tunnel and started from tunnel #1 again cux Ashlyn wanted to see the fish again. She wanted to see the 3rd time, possible the 4th, or more, but I told her we would go look at something else.

So, we went back upstairs to the "Touch of the Bay" where you can touch the rays, baby sharks and star fish. Ashlyn was scare to touch, but Alex was so excited and rolled up his sleeves just like his daddy and ready for it. At the end, Alex touched the trepang/sea cucumber (海參), and yelled out "I touched it!"

Then we went to watch the seals by the pier. They smell and noisy, but the kids loved to watch them.

As we were leaving the dock, Alex was so tired and he fell asleep instantly as we put him in the stroller. Poor kid, he was so tired that he didn't even want to have his formula. As for Ashlyn, she was still too excited and hoping we were going to take her to another aquarium.